Fw: [animal_net] Cheaper Meat Doesn't Equal Happier Meals - Report

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" meriem " <sb299871

" Animal_Net " <animal_net >

Thursday, October 06, 2005 2:23 AM

[animal_net] Cheaper Meat Doesn't Equal Happier Meals - Report

 

 

>

> AnimalVoicesNews

>

> Source/Letters: OneWorld.net < <foundation

> foundation

> Link: <http://www.commondreams.org/headlines05/0930-04.htm>

> http://www.commondreams.org/headlines05/0930-04.htm

>

> Published on Friday, September 30, 2005 by OneWorld.net <

> <http://www.oneworld.net/> http://www.oneworld.net/>

>

> Cheaper Meat Doesn't Equal

> Happier Meals - Report

>

>

> by Abid Aslam

>

>

> WASHINGTON - The giant feed lots and factory farms that have brought us

> cheaper meat also are fanning the spread of bird flu and mad cow

> disease, says a new report from a prominent environmental think tank.

>

> ''Factory farms are breaking the cycle between small farmers, their

> animals, and the environment, with collateral damage to human health and

> local communities,'' says the Washington, D.C.-based Worldwatch

> Institute.

>

> ''Mitigating the fallout will require a new approach to the way the

> animals are raised.''

>

> In the report, 'Happier Meals: Rethinking the Global Meat Industry,'

> author Danielle Nierenberg says companies including McDonald's and

> upscale food retailer Whole Foods Market have begun to improve animal

> welfare standards in their supply chains.

>

> Consumers can help by buying meat that is organic or from grass-fed

> livestock or that comes from smaller producers and by embracing

> vegetarianism, she says.

>

> Nierenberg salutes the World Bank for backing away from funding

> large-scale livestock projects in the developing world and adds that in

> June, 167 governments belonging to the World Organization for Animal

> Health agreed new voluntary standards for the humane transportation and

> slaughter of animals.

>

> Even so, industrial systems generate 74 percent of the world's poultry

> products, 50 percent of all pork, 43 percent of beef, and 68 percent of

> eggs.

>

> Feed lots--''concentrated animal feeding operations,'' in the

> jargon--account for more than 40 percent of world meat production, up

> from 30 percent in 1990.

>

> Industrial countries dominate production but factory farming is

> expanding rapidly near the major cities of Asia, Africa, and Latin

> America. Here, ''high population densities and weak public health,

> occupational, and environmental standards are exacerbating the impacts

> of these farms.''

>

> ''As environmental and labor regulations in the European Union and the

> United States become stronger and more prohibitive, large agribusinesses

> are moving their animal production operations overseas, primarily to

> countries with less stringent enforcement,'' says Nierenberg.

>

> ''Factory farms were designed to bring animals to market as quickly and

> cheaply as possible. Yet they invite a host of environmental, animal

> welfare, and public health problems,'' she says.

>

> Crowded, inhumane, and unhygienic conditions on factory farms can sicken

> animals and create ''the perfect environment for the spread of diseases

> including avian flu, bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE, or mad cow

> disease), and foot-and-mouth disease,'' according to Nierenberg.

>

> Additionally, factory farmed meat and fish contain ''an arsenal of

> unnatural ingredients'' including chemical and other pollutants,

> arsenic, and hormones.

>

> World beef prices have fallen roughly 25 percent over the past 30 years,

> Nierenberg says, and meat consumption is rising fastest not in the West

> but in the developing world.

>

> From the early 1970s to the mid-90s, meat consumption in developing

> countries grew by 70 million tons, nearly triple the rise in industrial

> nations.

>

> Some might see that as good news, an indication that people in poor

> countries are eating more protein. Nierenberg, however, says that ''as

> developing countries continue their climb up the protein ladder, the

> genetic stock of their livestock is eroding as higher-producing

> industrial breeds crowd out indigenous varieties.''

>

> The less diverse the herds, the more susceptible they are to the

> diseases that stalk the feed lots, scientists have said.

>

> In any case, Nierenberg adds, ''the true costs of factory farming are

> not reflected in the low price consumers currently pay for meat.

> Environmental and health effects--such as rising antibiotic resistance

> and cardiovascular disease--are absent from most assessments of the

> costs and benefits of this growing trend.''

>

> Many agribusiness firms have turned to irradiation and genetic

> engineering in a bid to ensure the safety of their products.

>

> ''These end-of-the-pipe remedies are certainly innovative but they don't

> address the real problem: factory farming is an inefficient,

> ecologically disruptive, dangerous, and inhumane way of making meat,''

> Nierenberg says.

>

> ''Overuse of antibiotics and other antimicrobials in livestock and

> poultry operations, meanwhile, is undermining the toolbox of effective

> medicines for human use.''